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Who Should Defend the Copyright of Content Network Bloggers?

As print media interests across the country continue to launch blog content networks, why don’t their resident bloggers receive the same vigorous infringement defense as newspaper and magazine writers?

Oh, Irony: Leaving Huffington Post Chicago over Copyright Infringement

Being a Huffington Post blogger was a good fit while it lasted. But I finally got tired of seeing all my words stolen and reposted on spam sites with little help from HuffPo to stop the practice.

How Metra Lost a New Rider

Flagrantly ignoring your responsibility to inform your own customers of service diversions that could lead to them shivering in a 45-degree wind chill for an extra hour and then treating them with open contempt for daring to complain about it is a really good way to turn off of a potential new rider.

Rosemary’s Maybes

Has the shock value of Rosemary’s Baby paled over time? Or do you just have to be Roman Catholic to be scared by its simplistic pseudo-religious themes?

CTA Surveys Customers…Badly

This week, the Chicago Transit Authority is surveying riders on the front page of its website. As you might expect (especially in the still-turbulent wake of Ron Huberman’s exit), the agency is doing a rotten job of it.

Bottom(s) Up for Chicago Bloggers: Time for Our Own Summit on Sustainability

When you get right down to it, the point isn’t to recreate billion-dollar mid-century media firms or copy self-aggrandized national sites. The point is to find the happy intersection of building community, sharing the news and making a living in Chicago for Chicago bloggers and Chicago audiences.

The Good Life in Downtown Chicago

During their windy City visit last week, Seattle’s coolest couple, Kasey and John, waxed giddily about the fun and frolic of my downtown Chicago neighborhood. Their reaction stands in stark contrast to the one I normally get from native Chicagoans when I tell them I live downtown. It’s almost like telling a New Yorker you never ride the subway. The response is always the same: no one’s stopping you from doing it, but why would you want the hassle?

Tasmanian Michael Goes to Bermuda

An old 12-step adage says no matter how willingly you’re off the wagon, sometimes recovery comes and finds you. One day you’re sitting there in your living room wrapped around your addiction of choice when you hear a knock at the door. You peer through the peephole and there’s no one there. But you could have sworn…

How Print News Will Survive on the Internet

If news is inherently a shared effort on the Internet, why are traditional news outlets trying to monopolize it with ham-fisted behaviors that violate the accepted norms of online community?

Print Media’s Five Suicidal Assumptions

Too often these days, in an effort to cling to anything familiar, some journalists believe beyond reason that by hiding atop an appropriately lofty tower or inside an appropriately narrow niche, they can still manage to monetize the old, ink-and-paper industry. And that’s how they’re killing their own industry.